Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta eps 1+2

What is it about?

School teacher Kashiwagi Shuji (Miura Haruma) wakes up one day to find an unknown girl in his bed. He claims he remembers what happened but has to rush to work. Kashiwagi then hands his keys to the girl and asks her to leave it in his mail box. We soon find out that he is engaged to Uemura Natsumi (Toda Erika) and the young girl, Saeki (The daughter from Gold) is actually a student in his class! Not to mention Saeki has some weird disease and is friendly with the nurse played by Uchida Yuki.

So its a high tension dorama about an affair, right?

Nope. The first episode which runs for an hour is mostly typical high school stuff with lots of time going to the students. In other words, someone wanted a long first episode, probably for rating reasons and to squeeze more ads in. Most of the stuff has nothing to do with the hook of the show, which was Kashiwagi waking up with a student in his bed.

Ok, first episode might have been very boring but surely the show picks up on the second episode?

Nope. You get another Kinpachi sensei story about two childhood friends, though it sort of correlates to the main hook of the series with a 'moral lesson' about telling the truth. While watching the second episode, I kept thinking about Jackie Cheung's July Rhapsody and how much better this story would have been as a movie. The one scene that caught my attention was the basketball scene between Uemura sensei and Saeki when Uemura sensei declares she knows something happened but she doesn't care.

Any reasons to watch Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta?

Mostly Toda Erika. I really like her portrayal of Uemura Natsumi as a woman who keeps her thoughts to herself with her forced cheerfulness in front of Kashiwagi. For AKB48 fans, Shinoda Mariko is in it as Uemura's housemate, friend and ex-girlfriend of Kashiwagi. Its nice to see her finally play a character her age although she could still pass for a schoolgirl.

Second reason would be the possibility of a nice on the outside but steely woman who is determined to get married vs young girl who would do anything to destroy the marriage war. Whether that is likely is another story.

Any reasons not to watch this dorama?

First reason is Miura Haruma, aka the magical hacker from Bloody Monday. First of all, he looks way too young even with having an older style haircut trying to look older. Another fucking example of the Ueto Aya syndrome, casting actors who are too young just for ratings. If the intention of the makers was to cast someone who would like a young deer looking at headlights then they've succeeded. If you think this dorama needs an everyman teacher who may be young and in over his head but doesn't look like he could be the same age as the students, look elsewhere. Oh yes, the worst crime of all, zero chemistry between the teachers. WTF is Matsuda Shota when you need him? Maybe this producers actually wanted them to look more like brother and sister in a passionless relationship in order to justify breaking it up.

Pacing is bad because this feels like its going to be a kitchen sink dorama with the setting up of the students, Saeki's friend who used to work at a maid cafe, Uemura's housemate, Saeki's health problems and  Uchida Yuki as the nurse. So its going to be young Kinpachi sensei trying to save his marriage while solving everyone's problems. And why to the Japanese keep using basketball in their doramas when  no one in dorama land knows how to dribble a ball properly?

Problem no 3; we don't know whether Kashiwagi actually did it with Saeki. Saeki told the nurse she did it and there was bleeding but I wouldn't trust her. This easy and way too obvious escape plot device just hangs over the first two episodes creating further empathy. Its like killing a hero but leaving a very obvious way for the villain to escape his death. Its cheapens the death and makes the audience ask, why bother?

Summary

I am going to give this dorama one more episode in the hope of seeing some psychological warefare between Toda Erika and Saeki. I want to see this dorama go to dark places but sadly this dorama is called 'Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta' which means important things were all taught by you which means moral lessons, lots of crying and forgiveness and the usual everyone gets stronger at the end bullshit. Its works for Kinpachi sensei because he has those kind, experience eyes that express empathy. This show has so far a story about an affair, void of suspense and chemistry with most of the time going to setting up filler side stories. Just for the record, I would never cheat on Toda Erika for that kabe kokousei from Gold.